It said Marvell should pay $1.17bn (£723m) in compensation — however that sum could be multiplied up to three times by the judge because the jury had also said the act had been "wilful".

Marvell's shares fell more than 10%.

The maximum penalty would be close to the $3.96bn value of the company, based on its market capitalisation.

Marvell makes a range of chips which includes processors which power devices including Blackberry smartphones, Sony Google TV internet video boxes and LED lighting controllers, as well as hard disks.Link to Original Source